If size matters, then this Wyoming ranch has it all.
The Pathfinder Ranches, at more than 916,000 acres, are bigger than the state of Rhode Island and almost double the size of Jacksonville, Florida, the largest American city by land mass in the Lower 48.
It’s larger even than the fictional “Yellowstone” Dutton Ranch from Taylor Sheridan’s famous television series, which is somewhere between 775,000 to 825,000 acres.
But Pathfinder is a real-life ranch that covers a sprawling area in four Wyoming counties — Natrona, Carbon, Sweetwater and Fremont.
It is one of the largest, if not the largest, ranch operations in Wyoming, according to Swan Land Co. real estate broker, Scott Williams, who listed the property on Wednesday for $79.5 million.
“The size is just legendary,” Williams told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday. “It is a rare assemblage. It’s really hard to represent just how big it is. I’ve tried to explain it, and just, the realization didn’t hit me until one day I was standing on one mountain range looking across to the other, and I saw that it was all Pathfinder in between.”
In that moment, Williams got a sense of just how expansive and vast this ranch, which lies between the Ferris and Pedro mountains and follows more than 20 miles of the Sweetwater River, really is.
“The range land, the grasslands, the river corridors, the mountains and the cattle — it just felt like freedom,” he said. “That is kind of how I would describe it.”
The legacy ranch is actually four distinct properties that have been assembled down through the decades from at least 12 historic ranches.
The total acreage includes leased state and BLM acres, which can be conveyed with the ranch. The deeded acreage is still large, at a total of 99,188 acres. They include pre-1904 water rights, providing crucial irrigation for hay acreage.
The ranch is also one of the largest working cattle ranches in the Rocky Mountain West, Williams added, and can handle a huge herd.
The total capacity is rated at 90,444 Animal Unit Months or AUM, according to the real estate listing. An AUM measures the capacity of rangeland to sustain livestock.
The ranch today deliberately doesn’t max out those AUMs, leaving some space for wildlife as well.
“They also raise native grass hay on irrigated fields,” Williams said. “And they have some outfitting that is offered by a third party. There’s also a sage grouse mitigation habitat bank that they operate on the ranch, which is pretty interesting, too.”
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.) 
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.) 
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.) 
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.) 
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.)
Historic Legacy
The ranch started out as a homestead in the 1800s, and it is a place where pioneers have left their mark. Literally.
Independence Rock, which lies in Natrona County, is near the ranch, and that is where many pioneers, some of them famous, carved their names into granite and time immemorial, before continuing a journey to new homes in the American West.
“The Oregon Trail crosses the ranch, the Pony Express, the California and the Mormon trails,” Williams said. “I think all of the emigrant trails cross this ranch.”
Wagon ruts and ferry sites can be found throughout the area, and Williams has no doubt that pioneers have left traces of their journey on the Pathfinder Ranch as well. That is there for its new owners to explore if they so choose.
The homestead didn’t start out as large as the ranch today. It started much as any other homestead, on a 160-acre section. Subsequent owners added to it over the years though, increasing its size, to the present-day holding.
Those acquisitions have helped to vertically integrate this ranch, which includes plenty of hay acreage, as well as many horse and cattle barns, spring-fed ponds, cow camps, shops, corrals — everything needed for a turnkey agricultural operation from Day 1.
“It takes 100 years to aggregate this type of acreage,” Williams said. “So just, over time, just add a little bit to it — buy this ranch, buy that ranch.”
The name “Pathfinder” was given to the ranch decades ago, Williams added, and it reflects important Wyoming history.
“John Fremont was known as the Great Pathfinder,” Williams said. “And he explored in that area, and so his name has stuck. That’s why there’s the Pathfinder Reservoir and the Pathfinder Ranch.”
The ranch itself is post card-pretty, just about anywhere a guest or a new owner might happen to look.
Rolling hills, dramatic mountains, vibrant green grasslands punctuated with interesting rock features — it’s a magnificent and vast territory that rivals the scale of the open range era.
It Has Its Own Church
The ranch is so large, it’s like its own little community. There’s even a church, as well as a riding arena, and the Pathfinder Reservoir.
There’s ample employee housing, as well as two beautiful lodges. The Great Pathfinder Lodge in the Two Crosses unit offers nine bedrooms in a 6,579-square-foot area that includes entertainment areas, while the Sandcreek Hunting Lodge, also in the Two Crosses Unit, offers six bedrooms in a 3,556-square-foot area.
From these lodges, guests have iconic views, among them Pathfinder Reservoir against a backdrop of mountains and green meadows.
The Beulah Belle Unit, meanwhile, includes the historic Dumbell Ranch as well as the Oil Can Ranch, Spear Ranch and Cross A Ranch. This section includes a main house, bunkhouse, and mobile home, as well as historic barns, shops and corrals.
The Stewart Creek Unit includes the Sun and Turkey Track ranches as well as the Grieve Ranch. It’s the largest of the ranch’s four units and its grazing allotments stretch to the eastern side of Green Mountain.
The unit also has multiple ranch houses and a horse barn, as well as a cow camp cabin, spring-fed pond, and many other small shops and barns to support the operation.
The fourth area, Wooden Rifle Unit, includes the Pistol Draw, Two Iron, Dry Creek and Bison Bend Ranches. The unit has a main house, bunkhouse, ranch house, barn, and numerous satellite structures to support operations in that area.
It’s also got one killer view of the Miracle Mile, which is a world-renowned stretch of the North Platte River that’s known for exceptional fishing, with the Seminoe Mountains in the backdrop of the landscape.
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.) 
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.) 
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.) 
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.) 
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.) 
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.) 
Wyoming’s expansive Pathfinder Ranches comes in at nearly 1 million acres — bigger than Rhode Island. And it’s on the market for $79.5 million. (Courtesy Scott Williams, Swan Land Co.)
A Protected Viewshed
Conservation easements and historical covenants protect the views, as well as the historic nature of the ranch, which offers many recreational and wildlife opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds. Those opportunities include 18 elk, 20 deer and 20 antelope landowner tags — enough to feed a few cowboys very well.
Two historic Wyoming livestock brands also come with the ranch, the Bar J Bar brand and the Dumbbell or Y-Cross brand.
The parent company that owns Pathfinder Ranches is Sammons Enterprises, which has decided to sell the ranch because it no longer fits the company’s overall portfolio, according to Pathfinder Ranches President Ryan Lance.
Pathfinder may feel like it’s an isolated kingdom looking out from any one of its lodges where the view is all Pathfinder Ranch as far as the eye can see. But this Yellowstone-esque kingdom is actually not all that far from civilization, if one should ever tire of all those ponderosa pine-covered mountains.
It’s just 16 miles from Alcova and 45 miles from Casper. Or, in the other direction, it’s 72 miles from Rawlins, and a 218-mile drive away from the state’s capital.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
